


Curiosity killed the Doc

by TasarienOfCarasGaladhon



Category: Forever (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Jo being nosy, wrong conclusions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-25 08:41:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3804028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TasarienOfCarasGaladhon/pseuds/TasarienOfCarasGaladhon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Jo had been a little more curious about her partner and the old ship that had him so obsessed? Our favorite homicide detective gets a little nosy, and learns much more than she bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Curiosity killed the Doc

Uncomfortable, Jo shifted her weight from one foot to the other. It wasn't that rare for a stranger to flirt with her, but a suspect in a murder investigation? That was all sorts of awkward! He wasn't bad looking, and kind of charming, but he was coming on to her _way_ too fast!

 

“So,” she said, trying to distract him from flirting, “what got you so interested in the Empress of Africa?”

 

Isaac's eyes lit up. “One of my ancestors was a slave on that ship,” he said, “and he passed down the story. A brave doctor tried to help the slaves out of their cells, but the captain shot him. The dying man dropped the key to the cells close enough to one of the slaves, and the rest is history.”

 

“Wow,” Jo sighed, impressed. “Did the good doctor have a name?”

 

“The story didn't say,” Isaac admitted, “but I did get a copy of the manifest—not from the wreck, obviously, but they kept a copy at the docks. Come here,” he said, pulling Jo over to a squeaky clean display case. Inside was a yellowed sheet of paper listing the white crew and all of the cargo (slaves included).

 

Jo squinted at the tiny cursive. “H. Morgan, ship doctor?”

 

 _Huh,_ she thought. _Maybe an ancestor of Henry's? It would explain the obsession._

 

“That's the man,” Isaac replied, raising his champagne flute in a private toast. “So, officer, how about that date—?”

 

Jo gave up. “Sorry, I need to find my partner,” she excused herself, smiling to soften the blow.

 

Before the millionaire could protest, Jo had disappeared in the same direction she'd seen Henry go. Hoping he was done with his phone call so they could leave, she rounded a corner and found herself in a dark hallway with paneled walls. She could hear Henry's voice from the nearest room.

 

“What do you want?” asked Henry. Jo's hand went to her gun as she noted the fear in her friend's voice.

 

“To celebrate the discovery of your ship, the Empress of Africa,” answered another voice, one she didn't know.

 

“How did you know I was on—?” the ME asked, and he sounded shocked. Jo approached slowly, trying to be as quiet as possible.

 

“History fascinates me,” interrupted the stranger. “Especially yours. Henry Morgan, born 1779.”

 

 _What the hell?_ thought Jo.

 

“Presumed lost at sea, Empress of Africa, 1814. Resurfaced 1815. Committed to an insane asylum in that same year. The ship was your first death, wasn't it?”

 

Jo's brow wrinkled in confusion. _Wasn't Henry's 'immortal' stalker guy dead? What was this man talking about?_

 

“Yes,” she heard Henry say.

 

“I didn't take you for a slaver,” the stranger said, sounding amused.

 

“I wasn't!” Henry protested. “I was trying to free them.”

 

An absurd thought took hold of Jo's brain. _Henry Morgan is H Morgan, the doctor from the Empress of Africa!_

 

“And the weapon you were killed with?”

 

Jo inched closer, sure that she was hearing things.

 

“The captain's flintlock. Why?”

 

There was a pause, in which Jo tried to keep up with her own thought process and failed.

 

“We're looking for the same thing, Henry,” the stranger said dramatically. “A way out. It's the same pistol, isn't it?”

 

Jo heard quiet footsteps as Henry approached the display case that held the antique gun.

 

“Yes,” he said, so quietly she barely heard it.

 

“That pistol is worth more than all the gold in the world.”

 

“Why?” asked Henry, and Jo heard his voice shake. Having had enough, she stepped into the room. “Why, Adam?”

 

“Henry?” Jo called out, pretending she hadn't heard the strangest conversation ever. “Who were you talking to?”

 

Henry turned guilty eyes to his detective friend. “No one.”

 

“Let's get out of here, then,” she suggested.

 

Before tonight, Henry might have asked to stay and explore every inch of the recovered treasure. Now he appeared shaken. He said nothing as they took a cab home, and almost didn't notice when Jo left for her own place.

 

* * *

 

Once she was in her own bed, Jo pondered the events of the day. Henry's conversation made no sense at all, and it was stupid to think he could be the doctor in Isaac's story. Still, Henry was an odd man, and lots of things about him made no sense.

 

 _Maybe he's a time traveler,_ Jo's mind supplied helpfully. _It would explain why he knows so much about everything, and talks about New York like he saw it being built._

 

She almost laughed out loud, and then turned the idea over in her mind. _Okay, so let's suppose he IS the Doctor Morgan from the ship. He was killed for helping the slavers, probably thrown overboard—officially lost at sea, like that Adam guy said. How does he come back to the future?_

 

Then she remembered Henry's bare chest. She'd seen it once or twice, and he had _almost_ told her what that scar was, not too long ago. It was no ordinary bullet wound, for sure.

 

“ _And the weapon you were killed with?” Adam had asked Henry._  
  
“The captain's flintlock.”

 

 _Awesome_ , thought Jo, rubbing her temples. _Next time I see Henry, I'll ask him how he's alive in 2015 if he died in 1814. I'll end up in Bellevue forever._

 

_Resurfaced 1815. Committed to an insane asylum in that same year._

 

Jo had to admit that if that were even close to true, it would explain why Henry was such a secretive guy. Nobody trusted former mental patients, present or past.

 

Suddenly, Jo remembered the antique pocket watch. She'd found it on the subway, and again in the cab...a cab that had finger marks of a desperate victim trying to escape before he drowned. Neither the cab nor the subway had physical traces of Henry besides the watch, but she had a gut feeling that her friend had been in the cab with his psycho stalker, just like he'd been on the subway train.

 

 _Your brand of eccentricity would take years to perfect_ , she had told him once, after solving the case of the fake royal—okay, the fake noble—who bought his suits at the same store as Henry.

 

“ _How about centuries?”_ he had answered, smiling mysteriously.

 

In her muddled, awake-until-3-AM brain, it was perfectly clear to Jo. Henry was a time-traveler, and she guessed that when he 'died' in the past, he came back to the present. Like the eccentric guy he was, he'd used his power to investigate Jack the Ripper, to sail on a slave ship and start a rebellion, and who knew what else? Amused, Jo imagined Henry in a red coat, fighting on the losing side of the American Revolution, then walking around a spaceship in a Spock-like uniform—with a scarf, of course.

 

 _No wonder he doesn't want to tell me his secrets,_ Jo realized as she dropped off to sleep. _They're unbelievable!_

 

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't decided yet if this is something I want to continue, but the idea wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it down. :P Hope you enjoyed. Maybe I'll pick it up again and have Jo confront Henry after gathering evidence in the last couple of episodes.


End file.
